AUSTRALIA'S OUTLOOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20152, 12 January 1929, Page 12

AUSTRALIA'S OUTLOOK.

GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM. ! growth of industries. I'FitOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. Jan. 3. Those who are inclined to believe that tlic outlook for Australia is about as cheer- . fill as a Greek 'drama can take a course iOL statistical figures with advantage to themselves and to their country. New »Sonth Wales, for example, begins the new year with a population of just under two - and a-half millions. Of that number more e than a million are, unfortunately, housed in the metropolis of Sydney, but this, after ' »il. is a p.cblcin not peculiar to this city. ' Take, again, Western Australia, the , HgricultPial industry of which has changed r"• the face of the remote western State, made the wilderness blossom as the rose -■ and easily compensated for the decline - in the goldmining industiv. There can lie nothing much wrong with a country whose population has multiplied by about eight in a little more than a quarter of a " Century. Iu the opinion of the Deputy-Governor cf the Commonwealth Bank, Mr. Armitage, who returned to Sydney recently >,; from an inspection of the primary and other industries of Australia, the States • folding out the greatest promise are West ern i-iAustralia and Queensland, the latter, lie says, because of its wonderful recuperative qualities after a dry spell. The popuof Australia, since the inaugnra- ; r.4ion of the Commonwealth, has more than :' "doubled. It means, in short, that with c :; the maintenance of this increase, the - population of Australia will have soared , to twelve or thirteen million people in Mother quarter of a century.